By Alex Frazier
Parity – Heading into the District One final four, the top three teams were conspicuously absent, the victims of upsets.
William Tennent and Pennridge pulled off the biggest upsets. The Panthers edged No. 1 Pennsbury 1-0 in the two teams’ third meeting of the year. Although they lost their next game to C.B. East 2-0, they will never forget the win over the Falcons.
As Tennent senior sweeper Jim Raccitti said, “It definitely made the season beating them, but it would have been nicer to go further. It was definitely a nice win for the team. No one has us winning that game at all.”
Likewise, Pennridge trumped No. 3 Council Rock North on PKs and then turned around and lost to Souderton in the next round on penalty kicks.
“This was the year of parity,” said C.B East coach Mike Gorni. “You couldn’t come out and bring your “B” game in an important game.”
Of this year’s final four teams, C.B. East and Downingtown West have been in the last three district semifinals, and they came into the tournament as the No. 8 and No. 7 seeds, respectively.
“It’s very hard (to make the final four),” said Gorni, “and the good thing about this year is it’s unexpected.”
The Patriots lost to Downingtown in the district finals last year and also to the Whippets in the first game of this season.
“We have nothing to lose. No one expected us to be here,” said Gorni. “We don’t have the pressure we had the past couple of years. We’re there. Anything can happen when you’re there.”
Re-starts – One aspect of soccer games that may elude the casual fan is the re-start. Coaches, however, know how critical re-starts are, especially if a team has no superstar scorer. They often create chaos in front of the goal where an opportune kick here or there can turn the game around.
Thanks to Gorni, Central Bucks East has become a team whose trademark is the re-start.
“Everybody wants to do things from the flow of play,” he said, “but the truth of the matter is that it comes down to someone getting one more goal. Whether it’s the winning goal on a re-start or the one that made it 1-1, it’s important.
“We have been up and down with them this year. We’ve had a ton of them and some games we’ve finished very well and some games we’ve let them hang. They’re still hard to defend.”
Bye…bye – Two of the top four seeds that received byes in the district tournament ended up losing their first game. No. 1 Pennsbury fell to No. 17 William Tennent 1-0, and No. 3 Council Rock North lost to No. 19 Pennridge 3-1 on penalty kicks.
Is having a bye in the first round a bad thing?
Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart didn’t think so. He attributed it more to seeding and a “gutsy” call by an official who gave Jimmy Ockford a red card 10 minutes into the game for a flagrant foul.
When he saw the seedings, Stoddart was concerned about William Tennent and wondered how the Panthers were seeded 17th.
“What hurt both of us was the matchups,” he said about his team and Council Rock North. “We both got very difficult matchups. They (Tennent) were the third best team we played all year long. That’s how much respect for that team I had.”
Ockford is a solid guy who plays hard and puts his elbows out to create space. Tennent’s Dan Eckhardt, who was the recipient of the elbow, explained it this way, “He came up and threw an elbow in my face. I didn’t even really feel it. I don’t know if he hit me in the face. He might have hit me in the back, but from the angle the ref saw it, I guess he hit me in the head. He knocked me completely to my back. I look up and the ref is giving him a red card.”
Stoddart didn’t use the red card as an excuse for the loss, however.
“Red card or no red card,” he said, “it’s not what happened that made us lose. It’s how we reacted to what happened. We had more than enough opportunities to win that game, but we didn’t react in the right way.”
Council Rock North coach Wendell Beres also didn’t think the bye was as detrimental as the weather preceding the Indians’ first game.
“We worked all season for the bye and the home field advantage,” he said.
But a spate of cold, wet weather forced Rock North to practice indoors.
“We were only able to train outside once in six days,” said Beres. “You can’t work on PKs inside.”
And it was penalty kicks that did the Indians in.
“We knew they would be good at PKs, and that we would struggle with them,” said Beres.
But the bottom line was that it didn’t have to get that far.
“We were the better team for 110 minutes,” said Beres. “We had plenty of opportunities to put the game away.”
Unfortunately, the Indians’ go-to player all year, Steve Neumann, had an off day. It happens. You only have to look at Ryan Howard’s performance in the World Series.
The hard part for Beres wasn’t losing early, but that he had to say good-bye to 16 seniors prematurely.
“They made sure the inexperienced guys who will be returning next year know what it takes,” he said.
Seeding – Maybe because it is the Year of Parity that seven of the 13 teams in the top half of the bracket were from the SOL, and in the top half of the top bracket, five of seven were SOL teams
In the bottom half of the bracket only 5 of 14 were SOL schools.
At least one coach thinks that the seeding should be looked at in terms of spreading out conference teams.
“You look at basketball, they’re not going to take the top ACC teams and put them all in the same corner of the bracket,” said Pennsbury coach Tom Stoddart. “They’re not even going to put three ACC teams in the corner of the bracket. You’re going to separate them.”
This was the third year in a row the Falcons didn’t qualify for states, even though by seeding, they should have. The previous two years they lost in the quarterfinals, this year in the second round.
Stoddart said that he couldn’t be concerned with previous years
“One year has nothing to do with the next,” he said. “There are three different championships out there. You take one if you can get it and move on.”
Unlike Council Rock North, which graduates 16 seniors, the Falcons can at least take consolation in being league champions.
“They (Rock North) only lost two games and they don’t have anything to show for it,” said Stoddart. “They deserve better shakes than that.”
SOL Top 5
1. Pennsbury
2. Council Rock North
3. Souderton
4. Central Bucks East
5. William Tennent
Southeastern Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association Poll
(through Nov. 1).
1. Father Judge. . . 17-2-1
2. Unionville. . . 18-2-0
3. Souderton. . . 14-2-4
4. Downingtown West. . . 14-2-4
5. Pennsbury. . . 17-2-0
6. Lower Merion. . . 17-3-0
7. Council Rock North. . . 15-2-2
8. Central Bucks East. . . 16-5-0
9. La Salle. . . 15-3-1
10. Christopher Dock. . . 14-3-1
11. North Catholic. . . 12-5-1
12. Pottsgrove. . . 15-3-2
13. Upper Darby. . . 12-2-2
14. Wissahickon. . . 14-4-1
15. Archbishop Ryan. . . 13-6-2
16. Germantown Academy. . . 10-5-1
17. Octorara. . . 14-4-1
18. Strath Haven. . . 13-3-3
19. Archbishop Wood. . . 16-2-0
20. Haverford School. . . 9-2-2
Others receiving votes (in order): West Chester Rustin, Conestoga, St. Joseph's Prep, Central Bucks West, Shipley, Pennridge, Bartram, Boyertown, William Tennent, Great Valley, Washington, West Chester Henderson, Neshaminy.
PSCA / ANGELO'S SOCCER CORNER POLL
(week of Nov. 1)
1. Parkland (11) previous rank 1
2 Pennsbury (1) 2
3. Manheim Township (3) 3
4. Council Rock North (1) 4
5. Upper St. Clair (7) 5
6. Lower Merion (1) HM
7. Mt. Lebanon (7) 6
8. Fox Chapel (7) 7
9. Unionville (1) 10
10. Peters Township (7) HM
Honorable Mention: Central Dauphin (3), Delaware Valley (2), Father Judge (12), Hershey (3), Strath Haven (1).
NSCAA National Region III Rankings
(Nov. 3)
1. Parkland (Allentown, Pa.) 21 - 0 - 0
2. The Pingry School (Martinsville, N.J.) 16 - 0 - 1
3. Upper St. Clair (Pittsburgh, Pa.) 18 - 2 - 1
4. Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J.) 19 - 0 - 1
5. Mount Lebanon (Pittsburgh, Pa.) 17 - 1 - 1
6. Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) 18 - 1 - 0
7. Fanwood (Scotch Plains, N.J.) 17 - 2 - 1
8 Pennsbury (Fairless Hills, Pa.) 17 - 2 - 0
9. St. Benedict's Prep (Newark, N.J.) 13 - 2 - 0
10. Unionville (Kennett Square, Pa.) 18 - 2 - 0
11. Council Rock North (Newtown, Pa.) 15 - 2 - 2
12. Seton Hall Prep (West Orange, N.J.) 13 - 2 - 1
13. Cliffside Park (N.J.) 14 - 0 - 1
14. Manheim Township (Lancaster, Pa.) 19 - 2 - 0
15. Rancocas Valley (Mt. Holly, N.J.) 16 - 2 - 4
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